Know Your Vocab
This word describes regularly moving from one place to another with the seasons in search of food and resources and not having a permanent home; this is how humans lived for the vast majority of our existence
What is NOMADIC?
The ocean that divides the Americas from Europe and Africa.
What is the ATLANTIC OCEAN?
In the Origin Story we read from this culture, a primordial egg is split by the giant Pan Gu to create the world.
What is CHINESE?
How humans fed themselves for over 90% of the existence of our species.
What is HUNTING AND GATHERING (or FORAGING)?
This is the study of the physical features of Earth and human activity as it affects and is affected by those features.
What is GEOGRAPHY?
This Neolithic monument made of massive stones is famous for many reasons, but we're most interested in the fact that its builders started practicing agriculture and then quit to go back to foraging.
The continent where human life began.
What is AFRICA?
In the Big History Origin Story, this is the age of the Earth. (Answers accepted within 1/2 billion years)
What is 4.5 BILLION YEARS?
The part of the Stone Age when a 'revolution' took place in how humans lived and fed themselves starting about 10,000 years ago.
What is the NEOLITHIC?
This is an object made by a human being, and it's typically something of cultural or historical interest studied by archaeologists.
What is an ARTIFACT?
This settlement is supposedly the longest continuously occupied place in the world and one of the very first with walls.
What is JERICHO?
The last continent to be reached by humans.
What is SOUTH AMERICA?
What is a TURTLE?
During this era of the Stone Age, humans were hunter-gatherers, mostly nomadic, and notably had a healthier diet and more free time than humans in later eras.
What is the PALEOLITHIC?
This is the ability to understand and participate fluently in a given culture, and it's something we want to be building in this class.
What is CULTURAL LITERACY?
An important proto-city found in modern Turkey, known for its equally-sized homes and lack of public monuments.
What is Çatalhöyük?
This region is named after its location BETWEEN two rivers, now located in modern day Iraq.
What is MESOPOTAMIA?
In the Mayan Origin Stories, humans are made out of this substance.
What is CORN?
Places like Lascaux and Chauvet are famous for containing this sign of culture among Paleolithic peoples.
What are CAVE PAINTING(S)?
This word describes a state of general equality for all people in a society; human groups were generally more this before the development of agriculture.
What is EGALITARIAN?
Perhaps the world's first temple, this site in southern Turkey between the Tigris and Euphrates was built by nomadic hunter-gatherers.
This island in southeast Asia is one of the lesser known places where agriculture was 'invented' independently.
What is NEW GUINEA?
In this culture's Origin Story, the Earth is a barren place until a seed of life is sent there by Umvelinqangi, and humans and all other life grow from the end of reeds.
What is ZULU?
A structure made from massive stones, like Stonehenge or Göbekli Tepe.
What is a MEGALITH?